Method oe operating- sawmill-blocks



UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

BELA GARDNER, OF FLORENCE, MASSACHUSETTS.

METHOD OF OPERATING SAWMILL-BLOCKS.

Specication of Letters Patent No. 14,909, dated May 20, 1856.

T0 all whom t may concern.'

Be it known that I, BELA GARDNER, of Florence, in the county of Hampshire and State of Massachusetts, have invented a new and Improved ode of Setting or Operating the Head-Blocks of Sawmill-Carriages; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description of the same, reference being had to the annexed drawings, making a part of this speciication, in which- Figure l, is a side view of a saw mill carriage with my improvement applied to it. Fig. 2, is a transverse vertical section of dotto a', Fig. l, showing the plane of section.

Similar letters of reference indicate corresponding parts in the two figures.

Hy invention consists in having the head blocks fitted between ways or guides which are placed transversely on the carriage and having screws pass through nuts on the under side of the blocks, the screws being turned when the log is to be adjusted, by means of an endless chain and pinion operated by a sha-ft connected with the driving shaft of the machinery.

To enable others skilled in the art to fully understand and construct my invention, I will proceed to describe it.

A, represents a saw-mill carriage which is fitted and works upon ways B, B, and is moved thereon, by a rack and pinion in the usual way.

C, O, represent two ways or guides which are placed transversely on the carriage A, and D, is the head block, which is fitted and works between them. To the under side of the block D, a nut E, is attached, through which nut a screw F passes, said screw being parallel with the ways or guides, O, O. One end of the screw F, has a pinion (d placed loosely upon it, and which may be connected to the screw so as to turn withy it when necessary or desired, by means of a clutch H, operated by means of a lever I.

J, is an endless chain, which works around pulleys K, K, attached to one side of the carriage A. The pinion Gr, gears into the links of this chain.

L, is a shaft which passes transversely underneath the carriage A. This shaft has a pinion M placed loosely upon it at its outer end. This pinion gears into the endless chain J, and is connected with the shaft L, so as to turn with it, when necessary or desired, by means of a clutch N, which is operated by a rod O, and lever O,'the inner end of which is connected by a bell crank P, v with a vert-ical rod Q, which reaches just above the flooring or platform R, on which the ways of the sawmill carriage rest. A spiral spring S, is attached to the bell crank I), said spring keeping the clutch` out of gear with the pinion M. The shaft L is connected with the driving shaft of the machine by means of a reversing gear U, arranged in the usual way.

The operation will be readily seen. While the carriage A is moving in the proper direction and the log is being fed to the saw, the two clutches H, N, are out of gear with their respective pinions G, M, but when the carriage reaches the end of its stroke and is gigged back, the operator depresses the rod Q with his foot and the clutch N, is there by thrown in gear with the pinion M, and as said pinion then rotates with the shaft L, the endless chain J, will be operated and also the pinion G, the clutch I-I being also thrown in gear with its pinion G and the screw F, will be rotated and the head block D moved laterally on the carriage A, the proper distance corresponding to the thickness of the stuff into which the log is to be sawed. The operator then removes his foot from the rod Q and the spring S, throws the clutch out of gear with the pinion M and the motion of the endless chain ceases. The log is secured to the blocks in the usual way, and both the head and tail block may be operated simultaneously by the same chain, although only one block is represented in the drawings.

The above improvement may be applied to either reciprocating or circular sawing machines, and for sawing logs or resawing timber.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new and desire to secure by Let-ters Patent, is,

Operating or adjusting the blocks of saw mill carriages by means of the screw F, endless chain J, and shaft L, in connection with the pinions G, M, and clutches I-I, N, arranged substantially as herein shown and described.

BELA GARDNER.

Witnesses z ALFRED T. LnLY, I-IIRAM STEBBINS. 

